Moving Expense Deductions for Students Who Relocate for School
By Muntasir Minhaz • Published Aug 19, 2026 • Money & Budgeting, Canadian Universities & Colleges
You deduct moving costs on your tax return when your new home sits at least 40 km closer to your school than your old home did. The deduction only reduces the taxable scholarship, bursary, fellowship, or research grant income you report, or employment income earned at the new location, not your tuition itself.
💵 The distance test: your move must cut the distance to your school by 40 km or more.
You claim the deduction against taxable scholarship, bursary, fellowship, or research grant income, or against pay from a job at the new location.
Track expenses on CRA Form T1-M and keep receipts. Don't send them unless CRA asks.
Leftover amounts you can't use this year carry forward to next year against the same type of income.
Eligible costs include moving and storage, travel, temporary lodging, and lease-breaking fees.
Who Qualifies for the Moving Expense Deduction
The Canada Revenue Agency lets a full-time post-secondary student deduct eligible moving expenses on the federal tax return when a move is tied to attending school. The rule works the same way it does for a worker who relocates for a job. You need to pass a distance test, and you need income at the new location to deduct against.
You qualify if you moved to attend a university, college, or other post-secondary institution as a full-time student in a program leading toward a degree, diploma, or certificate. The school does not need to sit in a different province. A move from one city to another inside the same province still counts, as long as it meets the distance rule below.
The 40 KM Distance Test
Your new home must sit at least 40 kilometres closer to your school than your old home did. CRA measures this using the shortest normal public route between each home and the school, not a straight line. Compare the distance from your old address to school against the distance from your new address to school. A gap of 40 km or more passes the test.
A student who moves from a suburb 15 minutes from campus to a dorm room across the street usually fails this test, since the starting distance was already short. A student who moves out of a small town two hours from the nearest university, into an apartment near campus, passes easily.
What the Deduction Applies Against
Moving expenses do not come off your tuition or your total income. They reduce two specific types of income only.
The taxable part of scholarships, fellowships, bursaries, and research grants you report as income for the year.
Employment or self-employment income earned at the new location, if you also worked while studying.
If your eligible expenses run higher than that income in the year you moved, the leftover amount carries forward. You claim it the following year, against the same type of income earned at the new location. A student with no taxable scholarship income and no local job in year one carries the whole deduction forward and uses it once income shows up.
Moving Expenses for Your Household
The deduction covers members of your household who move with you, not only you personally. If a spouse, common-law partner, or dependant relocates with you to the new address, their share of the eligible costs counts too, calculated the same way against the same income types.
Simplified vs Detailed Method for Vehicle and Meal Costs
For vehicle expenses and meals during the move, CRA lets you pick between two ways to calculate the amount. The detailed method has you keep every gas and food receipt and add them up. The simplified method has you claim a flat per-kilometre rate for vehicle costs and a flat daily rate for meals instead of tracking receipts. The simplified method still needs a record of the distance driven and the number of days, even without individual receipts.
Eligible Expenses
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Transportation and storage | Movers, a rental truck, packing materials, short-term storage of household items |
| Travel costs | Vehicle expenses, meals, and up to 15 days of temporary lodging near the old or new home |
| Ending your old lease | Lease cancellation fees for your old home |
| Keeping your old home vacant | Costs of maintaining a former home while it sits empty and up for sale, up to a set limit |
| Selling your old home | Real estate commission, legal fees, and related selling costs, if you owned it |
| Address changes | Updating your driver's licence, vehicle registration, and utility hookups at the new address |
Expenses your school or an employer already reimbursed do not qualify a second time. Keep every receipt even though you do not attach them to your return.
Filing the Claim
Fill out Form T1-M, Moving Expenses Deduction to work out your total and confirm you pass the distance test. Enter the result on line 21900 of your federal return. Keep the T1-M and your receipts with your own records. CRA sometimes requests them after you file, sometimes years later, so store them with your other tax paperwork rather than discarding them after filing season.
Report the scholarship, bursary, or employment income the deduction applies against on the correct lines of your return first. The deduction only works if that income sits on the return in the same year, or in a later year if you are using a carried-forward amount.
Common Situations That Don't Qualify
Moving home for the summer, then back to school in September, does not create a new deduction each time unless each leg passes the distance test on its own and ties to full-time attendance or work at that location. A move for a part-time program does not qualify. Neither does a move driven mainly by lifestyle reasons, such as wanting a nicer apartment near the same campus you already lived close to.
Combining This With Other Credits
The moving expense deduction stands apart from tuition credits, the Canada training credit, and any provincial tax credit tied to your program. Claiming moving expenses does not reduce your T2202 tuition and enrolment certificate claim. File both if you qualify for both.